The Surprise Conti Child

by Tara Pammi

  He devoured the dips and valleys of her breasts and waist and hips, the honeyed sheen to her skin, the thick swathes of her hair like a starving man. Or a youth who was looking at a woman’s body for the first time.

  His hands itched to hold those lush breasts, trace that concave plane of her stomach. He would kiss and lick and taste every inch of that silky flesh. Those long legs would wrap around him as he pushed into her...

  Would she scream his name like she had done seven years ago? Would that sheer, abandoned pleasure of it send him careening toward his own release?

  Dio, he hadn’t gotten hard like this at the mere sight of a woman even in puberty.

  As if she could sense his lustful thoughts, her elegant neck turned this way and that. And then she looked up.

  Their gazes held and clashed over the distance, a pink flush suddenly seeping up her neck and cheeks. He saw the stiffness that descended in her shoulders, the vulnerability in her mouth that in turn made her spine straighten as she realized the intentions he didn’t hide in his eyes.

  She read him as clearly as if he had told her what he intended to do to her and with her.

  Her brown gaze widened, her palm moved over her neck in a betraying gesture and then her mouth pursed. That same gaze now flashed fire at him.

  With his heart pounding, he watched as she stood up in a smooth movement, like a gazelle rising from a pond. Challenge simmered in every line of her body as she walked to the lounger, picked up a tube of sun lotion and went back the pool.

  Tension a live beast roaring inside him, he waited. Instantly, he realized what she was going to do. He knew she was only doing it to provoke him, to challenge him. To drive him mad. To tell him she wasn’t going to fall in line so easily.

  But it didn’t help quiet the acrid burn in his gut.

  The husky tone of her voice reached him, a mild thread outside the roaring in his ears. On cue, Luca climbed out of the pool, said something that made her laugh and put his hands on her shoulders.

  Covering her breasts with her crossed hands, Alexis turned and gave Luca her back. Hands full of sunscreen, Luca undid the thin string of her bikini top, pushed it out of his way and slathered it all over her skin.

  A burst of violent emotion claimed him as he looked at them transfixed.

  Those elegant, artistic hands of his brother’s roamed freely over the woman that belonged to him.

  Skin and sinew that Leandro wanted to touch, curves that Leandro wanted to claim, laughter that he wanted to evoke...all in Luca’s hands.

  Sweat beaded his brow, his entire body a taut mass of frustrated desire and rampaging fury.

  He had warned Luca to stay away. Of course, his brother wouldn’t listen. He knew in a rational part of his mind that Luca didn’t even want her. That he would not take what was Leandro’s. But he would cross any line just to rile Leandro, just to push him out of his comfort zone.

  Lines that neither of them could come back from...

  “She pits your brother against you.” Antonio’s fractured English broke the grip of his anger. “I did not like that woman seven years ago and I do not trust her now. Keep your child and get rid of her.”

  Leandro cringed at the reckless order. “I couldn’t have asked for a better mother for Isabella.” Even as he committed another betrayal toward Rosa, Leandro knew it was the truth.

  Rosa had been brought up traditionally, had leaned on him for strength, had been obedient, caring. If they had had children, he knew she would have bowed to Antonio’s will in their upbringing.

  It would have been Leandro’s battle to fight.

  But Alexis was like a fierce lioness.

  Even as she fought her own insecurities, Alexis didn’t back down, not once when it came to Isabella. “I will not separate them and fracture my family as Enzo did. She belongs with me, just as Izzie does.”

  “I did not think I would see the day when you would let a woman weaken you.”

  Dio, the last thing he wanted was to discuss Alexis with his grandfather. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Are you so blinded by lust that you can’t see that she’s manipulating you? You think she doesn’t know that you stand here like a lust-crazed fool watching your shameless brother flirt with her, put his hands on her?”

  A grim smile broke Leandro’s mouth. Lust-crazed he might be but he was no fool. He had been right.

  Alexis wasn’t one to meekly fall into his plans. That he had brought her this far was only due to her insecurities and because he was ruthless when he set his mind to something. Despite her grief about her brother, despite thinking of herself as second-rate with her parents, she’d done everything for them.

  The challenge of conquering her, of bending her to his will, of making her his own sizzled in his blood now. “I do not like what she just did any more than you do, but I know why she did it.”

  When he was through with her, she was going to wish she hadn’t started it. No, scratch that.

  She was going to like everything he was going to do to her. He was going to indulge himself and her, until the thought of even challenging him and his rights with her was driven from her mind.

  A derisive glint entered Antonio’s eyes. “I’ve never seen you look at a woman like that. Not even poor Rosa. This woman is not good for you. It is obvious she’s after our name.”

  Masking the anger that filled him so easily, so uncharacteristically, for his grandfather had always been a man of crude words, Leandro filled his tone with cutting ice. “Rosa and Alexis are different kinds of women. Once Alexis realizes this is for the best, once she understands what I want from this marriage, it will work just fine.

  “But do not speak of her in that tone, Nonno. I will not tolerate it again.”

  “You would go against me for a woman who slept with you after—”

  Raising his hand, Leandro cut Antonio off. Let the old man see his ire. “She will be my wife. She is the mother of my child. She is your best chance at a future Conti male heir that you’re so desperate for. I suggest you afford her the respect she deserves.

  “Enzo let you browbeat Mamma, but I will not allow it. Whatever our private arguments, Alexis is not to hear even one of your complaints. Not if you want to see your great-grandchildren.”

  Chin lifting in mutiny, his grandfather glared at him. “What about the trouble Salvatore will cause with the board? He will not take kindly to you breaking your engagement to Sophia.”

  “Kairos Constantinou.”

  “That reckless Greek magnate? That’s your answer?” The combined awe and horror in Antonio’s voice only confirmed Leandro’s decision. The Conti board needed new blood. He was tired of being the only one who had to steer it in new directions since Luca even refused to be on the board. “You thought his investment strategies were too bold in this financial climate,” Antonio continued.

  “Yes but Kairos proved me wrong. An alliance between us will work well.” He waited for Antonio to digest it.

  Kairos had grown up on the streets of Athens, built a powerful export empire, was hungry for alliances in the Old World that still looked at him and shunned him because of his background. Leandro had exactly what Kairos wanted—the Conti name that went back hundreds of years—and Kairos had what he wanted.

  For all his reckless investments and hunger for power, there was an integrity to Kairos that Leandro liked, a strength that he needed.

  Already Kairos had arrived in Italy and started working on his piece of their alliance.

  The threat from Salvatore was taken care of. Valentina’s future was set. If only he could settle Luca’s future, too. Once his alliance with Kairos was solidified, he’d have to think of it.

  All that was left was for him to marry Alexis. His world would be back on its track.

 
“You trained me well, Nonno. Now, trust me to handle the company and the family.”

  After several more minutes, finally, Antonio relented. “I do trust you, Leandro. Neither will I stop protecting you and even Luca.” That he left out Valentina scraped Leandro raw but that was a battle he’d learned long ago to not fight.

  No matter, because soon Valentina wouldn’t care that she didn’t have Conti blood in her veins.

  But his grandfather was nowhere near done. “Did you know this woman you trust so implicitly has been speaking with a travel agent? That she purchased two tickets back to New York in a couple of weeks? Exactly the week during which you are scheduled to travel to the Middle East on business?”

  * * *

  “You’re playing a treacherous game, bella,” Luca whispered in her ear as he tied back the strings of her bikini top with an efficiency that spoke volumes. “I didn’t think you were the manipulative kind, playing my brother against me.”

  Alex cringed. Shame made her voice thin. “I’ll be sad to lose you as a friend but I did what I had to do, Luca. I have to somehow fight your brother’s arrogant assumptions.”

  “And is it so important to fight Leandro, Alex?”

  “Someone has to make him learn he can’t control everything.” Even now, she couldn’t believe the arrogance of his words, her own weakness that she hadn’t even mustered a reply. “Someone needs to cut him down to size.”

  His laughter instantly soothed Alex’s shame. She turned and as always, the words on her mouth faltered at the masculine perfection of Luca’s features.

  No man should have such beauty, such perfection that everything was handed over to him on a platter. That the whole world crumbled to its knees for that smile. That no woman would look past it to the man beneath, she suddenly realized.

  Yet, she had always preferred Leandro’s austere, almost stark beauty to Luca’s overwhelming perfection.

  Unlike the forbidding man whose face had become hauntingly tight at what she had done, Luca was always touching her. He did so now, framing her face with his hand.

  Wicked humor shone in his jet-black eyes. “Are they still standing there?”

  Alex peeked out of the corner of her vision. The dark specter of Leandro and Antonio standing over them turned her tummy into jelly. “Yes, but Luca, I’m not interested in you,” she added hurriedly.

  “You wound me, Alex.” Pure laughter filled his words and she exhaled roughly. “What is it that my brother possesses that I don’t?”

  “Less cockiness in his own beauty, like a peacock, for starters,” she said, raising a brow. Laughter carved dimples in his cheeks. “Not that I’m interested in Leandro either.”

  A sober light filled his gaze. “Resistance is futile if he’s decided that he’s interested, cara. And having seen the fury in his eyes just now, I don’t think it is in question anymore.”

  Alarm made her question sharp. “Is that a threat to fall in line with his wishes?”

  “No, bella.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Just a warning from a friend. I’m sure Antonio has already informed him that you bought tickets for you and Izzie to New York. I can’t let him have all the odds.”

  Alex stepped back from him, aghast that he knew. She had made herself crazed with anxiety, cleaved herself in two before she’d decided to buy them. But just like earlier, she needed something to calm her agitation, she needed an exit strategy whether she used them or not.

  “How do you know? Damn it, how does Antonio know?”

  Luca shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve declared war on my brother by flirting with me. By buying those tickets.”

  “He started it. I just armed myself.”

  “No one’s ever called me a weapon before.” He preened and pouted. “I’m not sure whether to be amused or insulted.”

  His mock hurt expression sent her to giggles just as it did Izzie.

  “Your laughter is music, bella, your spirit so pure,” he said a wistful note to it. The jet-black of his gaze warmed for an infinitesimal moment, showing a glimpse of desperation that caught Alex’s breath. “Maybe you’ll prefer me instead of Leandro?”

  A stinging retort rose to her lips but Alex held it back. She didn’t mistake that he was attracted to her.

  No, what Luca liked was the idea of what she represented to Leandro.

  Shock widened her eyes as she caught a facet of the playboy that no one probably ever saw. She smiled and kissed his cheek, immensely glad to call him a friend. “Now, I know why they call you the Conti Devil.”

  He offered his arm and Alex linked hers around it. They started a slow walk around the exquisitely manicured lawn. Lush greenery dotted with Japanese trees and bouquets of bougainvillea. But through every step, and every breath, Alex was aware of the presence of Leandro behind her.

  She couldn’t help but notice Luca carefully kept them in view of the terrace.

  “That I can make you laugh is going to drive him crazy the most.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes, we used to compete to try to make Valentina laugh. But Leandro, you see, never had a chance to be a carefree child, to play pranks. It drove him nuts that I always won with Tina. She was this tiny, skinny thing and took ages to trust us, to get used to us. Although, it’s him she goes to when she’s upset, she comes to me for laughs.”

  Alex frowned. “Used to you?”

  Luca’s carefree mouth tightened and it changed the entire vista of his face. “Valentina lived with our mother until she died. When we heard of her death, Leandro brought her to live with us. It was the first time we met each other. Until then, we did not know that we had a sister.”

  “Leandro brought her here, not Antonio?”

  “No. Antonio had his reservations about Tina. But from the moment we learned about her, Leandro wouldn’t rest.”

  Family means everything to me, he’d said on the flight.

  “How old was he?”

  “Fifteen.”

  With every word Luca uttered, Alex’s panic mounted. It felt as though something was rushing at her at breakneck speed and she was stuck in its way. Just like the truck that had crashed into her sedan. Except this time, it was her heart that could get crushed into tiny little pieces.

  One kiss...she’d shared one kiss with the man and somehow her heart had already taken a beating? How had she left herself so vulnerable to his manipulations? How did she extricate herself without harming Izzie?

  “Only fifteen?” she mumbled, hoping Luca would keep talking. Even as she knew that he was manipulating her in his own way.

  “Si. Even then Leandro was set in his ways. He argued with Antonio for days, relentless in his belief that Tina belonged with us, that she have a home with us.” His jet-black gaze held hers. He took Alex’s hands in his and squeezed. The comfort he offered made her spine tingle with warning. “My brother will do anything to protect those he considers his, Alex. Whatever he has done or will do, he wants the best for Izzie. And you.”

  “But I’m not his,” she whispered back. “He can’t have me because he’s decided it should be so.”

  Suddenly, Alexis understood everything she hadn’t seen until now. Chills broke out on her bare skin even as the sun warmed her.

  Leandro had never intended to be a stranger to Izzie. Even before they had left, he’d known that. He had accompanied her to New York knowing that he was going to bring them back here.

  He’d told her nothing, let her believe that it was a burden she’d brought on him. Let her wrangle around in her own confusion and fears.

  The fury in his eyes when Justin had asked Izzie when she would return, the stony gaze when Alex had mentioned bringing another man into her and Izzie’s life, everything made sense now.

  Chest tight, throat ra
w, Alex wanted to hit something.

  Fingers cold on her skin, Luca stroked her shoulders, as if to calm her. As if he understood how close to the surface her temper was. “Should I tell you what else I think he’s saying to Antonio, Alex?”

  Forehead resting on his shoulder, for Alex felt as weak with emotion as a leaf that could be swayed by the wind, she nodded.

  “I’m sure he warned Antonio to never disrespect you again. That he will banish him from his life if he ever hears him say so.”

  Tears knocked at her eyelids and Alex held them at bay with her last thread of will. “You’ve no idea what you’re asking me to overlook just because he means well.”

  Her insecurity with her parents.

  Her weakness after the accident.

  Her fear that she might fail Izzie too...as she’d failed at everything else.

  Leandro had learned all her fears and insecurities, while she had thought him genuinely caring, and he’d taken each one and used it all against her.

  He’d caged her with good intentions and her own need to do the right thing by everyone around her.

  “I know what my brother could do in his drive to do his duty. Just give him a chance, Alex. See if he’s worthy of you. Do not let pride stand in your way. If you find not, I’ll personally help you in your fight against him.”

  “And will there be a fight, Luca?”

  “If you take Izzie and walk away from him? If you deprive Izzie of her own father because Leandro has his own way of doing things, because he’s the most arrogant, domineering brute in the whole world?” Luca’s laugh was harsh, filled with his own complaints against his brother. “Yes, bella.” He sounded full of regret at the very prospect. “It would be a sad day if two of the most deserving people I know start tearing into each other with a child in between.”

  With Luca’s dire-sounding prospect still ringing in her ears, Alex returned to her suite. Mind churning, she helped Izzie bathe and then picked at some fruit and olives and sipped her cold white wine. Restless to her very bones, she weaved a path through the lakefront sitting room that her suite afforded.